


Adore Me

by lilfinch



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: A little smutty, Character Study, Cheating, F/M, I have no self control, i don’t know why i did this, if you hate it you hate it and I’m at fault I understand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23305951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilfinch/pseuds/lilfinch
Summary: This is a character study of Linda Monroe, with some mild smut because I hate myself.
Relationships: Linda Monroe/Gary Goldstein
Comments: 21
Kudos: 47





	Adore Me

**Author's Note:**

> I understand, it’s a small fandom... but how content starved must you be to wind up here. I respect.

Linda Monroe didn’t think much of her affairs. She had so many of them, so often. It wasn’t that they blurred in her mind, wasn’t that she forgot them. After a while they just… lost significance. 

Of course, that didn’t stop Linda from having them. It was an addiction, like she was trying to chase the high that she was sure she’d had in the beginning. The thrill, the excitement, of someone wanting her, needing her. There was always the thought that lingered in the back of her mind that maybe, just maybe, she needed these little flings, the mingled breath, the whispered moans, more than they needed her. But it was a thought lost in the passion all too quickly, not to be revisited until the next person caught her eye.

Linda Monroe had forgotten Gary Goldstein went to her high school. As she was hiring him for the first time, she noted that he was familiar. Something electric buzzed in her skin when they shook hands and when he smiled at her. It wasn’t until a few weeks later, the night they met up to discuss something, that she realized she knew him.

Linda had had a long day. Her son was a menace, and she’d given the nanny off for the night because she didn’t have work. Her mistake. She loved her son, she did, but he was entirely too excitable and had the attention span of a goldfish. So, when Gerald arrived home that evening, Linda wasted no time in draping herself in his arms, silently asking to be held, her fingertips twisting the lock of hair at the nape of his neck.

And then Gerald said her name. He said it in a voice that dripped with tiredness and to fine tuned ears even radiated with annoyance. Linda had stiffened and cleared her throat twice as Gerald kissed her head and dragged himself to the dining room with a few mumbled, indistinguishable words about heading to bed early.

Linda almost didn’t remind him that they had that meeting with their attorney tonight, and when she did, it was met with a yawn and a dismissive wave.

“Well,” Linda said, biting down her pride and straightening her back, “if you won’t go, then I will.”

She marched out the door without a second thought. 

There was conversation, but it was oh so late, and Gary had promised to stay late to talk with Linda. His secretary had already left the office. Soon, she was staring into the icy blue of his eyes, nodding along to the words he was saying but not registering them, trying to place the familiarity that itched in the back of her mind.

It struck Linda all at once. The moonlight hit his spade nose and his sloped eyes at a very specific angle and Linda couldn’t help but let a small gasp escape her glossed lips.

The summer before their freshman year of college. It was a blazing hot August afternoon, and most of the seniors had cleared out to get to college. Gary was working at the local pool as a lifeguard.

Linda hated the community pool. It was dirty, and loud, and gross, and even if her friends did manage to drag her, god _forbid_ she set a _toe_ in that bitter chlorine water.

No, on those tragic occasions, Linda preferred to stretch out on her towel in the grass, soaking the sun into her bronzed skin, and peer from behind her sunglasses at the cute lifeguard slouching in the tall, white chair, applying sunscreen every few minutes because his skin was just that pasty. 

It amused Linda. He was a little awkward and a little gangly, but every now and then, his sunglasses would slip off of his nose, and his squinting blue eyes would slide over to her. She would sit up on her elbows and glance up at him. They would sit like that for a moment before there would be a loud splash or screaming or something would distract them. The sunglasses would be pushed back up, Gary would shuffle in his seat, and Linda would lay back down, making sure to arch her back and stretch.

She had a boyfriend, yes, but on that particular August day, her boyfriend had gone to visit college and left her lonely and hot all alone in boring Hatchetfield. She was one of the few still drawing out her time at home. Well, her and Gary Goldstein.

Linda wasn’t exactly sure what had compelled her to go to the dirty community pool that afternoon, but she probably would have turned around had she not met the gaze of the lifeguard boy just over the rusty fence. So, Linda unlocked the fence and stepped inside, one sweeping glance around the pool confirming it was empty.

“Slow day?” She called up to Gary Goldstein, who had been watching her with a curious look in his eyes. It was six o’clock, the pool would be closing in an hour and this was probably the reason for the lack of the usual crowd gathered at the pool.

He smiled back at her, giving her a hesitant sort of grin. “Yeah. I’m surprised to see you here.”

Linda didn’t respond to that, instead making her way closer to the lifeguard chair and looking up at him, hugging her towel close to her chest. 

“Buy me a hotdog?”

It was just beginning to get darker, the sun slowly dipping into the horizon and casting dark golden rays into the sky. Gary kept his hands in the pockets of his red board shorts as they walked to the concession stand, listening to the slap of Linda’s flip flops against the pavement.

Linda tried to pull up any mental files she had on Gary Goldstein. He was a quiet boy who mostly kept to himself, and she never had any classes with him. She was pretty sure he’d dated one of her friends in freshman year, and then a boy she didn’t know sophomore year. Other than that, nothing.

“Do you wanna swim?” Gary asked, out of the blue. The idea was so absurd that Linda couldn’t help but let out a scoff.

“Me? Swim? In that cerulean cesspool? Absolutely not.”

Gary smiled at her, unfazed. “I would say it’s more of a light turquoise, wouldn’t you?”

Linda blinked in surprise. Was he trying to initiate easy conversation with her? She had to admit, his gall was impressive.

“That’s not turquoise. That’s verging on yellow.”

“Then we settle on... what? Light teal?”

“Light _dirty_ teal.”

“Light dirty teal.”

Gary laughed and Linda smiled. She didn’t mean to smile, it wasn’t on purpose. She caught herself with a start and immediately frowned, but Gary didn’t notice, he was buying her a hotdog. 

They talked until and past closing time. Gary managed to convince Linda to sit by the pool with him while he dipped his feet in, and left the lights on when the orange sky rolled into indigo. They talked about nothing yet everything. That’s not entirely true, it was mostly Linda complaining loudly about whatever that came to mind, but Gary managed to get her to smile a few more times. He offered to walk her home when it started to get cold and he didn’t have a jacket to give her. Linda agreed, she was in a thin cover up dress and a bikini that served no purpose other than for her to look good in but that was also far too cold for her comfort.

Gary Goldstein kissed Linda once on her doorstep, and then smiled and waved to her as he left. She stood there, watching him go, unsure what expression her face was making, but watching him nonetheless, just in case he looked back. He did. A few times. On the last time, Gary looked back, smiled largely, waved, and then burst out laughing and took off down the lamp-lit street.

Linda Monroe didn’t see Gary Goldstein again until he was writing up her will.

To be fair, Linda tried not to get involved. Most of her affairs were never about feelings more than they were about climbing social ladders and getting what she wanted. The husband of annoying Erica Wilson when she wanted to kick Erica out of the club (she could have without the scandal but it was more fun with one). Daniel Brady when he started spreading rumors about her to shut him up. Jessica Ellis when Linda wanted her huge party yacht for River’s second birthday party.

But then there were those specific few incidents where Linda found herself in a mood, set off by an off comment or a long day and then proceeded to find herself in the throes of passion with people she normally wouldn’t cast a second glance at. Cute Nora from the coffee shop with the unnecessarily authoritative air and the blue eyes. John from the ski lounge who helped her lock her feet in the boots. Gerald’s secretary, Erin, the hot butch girl with the fox grin.

Linda’s affairs were her business and her hobby, her work and her passion.

Gary Goldstein paused from his talking at the little gasp Linda let out.

“Something the matter, Miss Monroe?” Miss Monroe, Linda couldn’t help but smirk. Gary’s crows feet had stretched down into his cheeks, probably from all the summers he spent squinting into a light dirty teal pool. He was still unconventionally cute, with his thin framed glasses and his lilted New York accent to cover up his slight, nasally lisp.

“I just remembered that we went to highschool together.” Nothing more, nothing less. The electricity from a simple handshake still lingered, if Linda played her cards right…

Gary blinked. “That we did, Miss Monroe.”

A coy smile played on Linda’s lips and she let out a light laugh. “Then stop with all that Miss Monroe nonsense, Gary.” She placed her hand on his arm. Gary looked down at her hand and she let it drag slowly off of his sleeve, palm, then fingertips.

He let out a nervous chuckle. “Ah, right. Linda. Now, back to the will-”

“You bought me a hotdog. That night at the pool.”

Gary opened his mouth, then closed it. He paused for a moment and smiled warily. “You refused to go in my pool.” He was hers. Linda laughed a purposefully airy laugh, glancing down at her lap and tucking her hair behind her ear.

“So now the community pool is your pool?” Be teasing, hold eye contact. Linda leaned forward on her elbows, raising one eyebrow at Gary.

“It was, for the most part, my pool for four years, Miss- Linda. The guy who ran it was a drunk, and I wasn’t even trained when I started working there. Next thing I knew I was opening it and closing it and giving the swimming tests. So yes, I will always refer to it as my pool.”

Linda made sure she laughed, made sure she inched closer and closer. They talked, but soon words began to falter and their gazes drifted across each other’s faces. Not ten minutes later Linda Monroe cut Gary Goldstein off mid-sentence to press an insistent yet soft kiss to his lips. His hands slid around her waist, pulling her onto his lap. A little bolder than Linda would have expected from him, but she certainly didn’t mind. Linda’s hands drifted into Gary’s hair, her fingertips digging into his scalp, and moaned into the kiss. 

They broke apart. Linda didn’t mean to look into his eyes, to see the curiosity and lust and confusion they held. In many strange ways, the emotions clouding Gary’s gaze were similar to the ones Linda felt brewing within her. There wasn’t any guilt, she stopped feeling that after a while, but there was confusion, a dangerous, odd mix that really only elevated the desire and the want buzzing in her body.

How badly did she need this? Linda felt her coat slide to the floor.

Or was it purely want? Gary’s hands slid under her shirt and Linda shivered at his cool touch.

It was selfish, definitely. No matter what, so, so selfish. Gary’s teeth nipped at her jaw. Linda’s head rolled back and she bit her lip. This wasn’t the first time he was doing this. Did Gary Goldstein have a significant other? Was he married?

For some reason, jealousy shot through Linda’s body, though it was gone in an instant. Was it replaced by guilt? By the searing shoots of empathy she either ignored or that were never there in the first place?

Gary lifted her up with a surprising amount of ease and set Linda down on his desk. Kissing her, he let his hands drift over her shoulders and her stomach and her waist. 

No. Of course she wasn’t guilty. Linda was consumed. She needed this just as much, maybe even a little more, than she wanted this. She needed the way Gary looked at her with questioning eyes, wanted to feel the word “yes” come out of her own mouth. Needed his touch. Wanted his breathy moans in her ear. Needed the comfort that his bare chest against her own provided, and wanted the comfort that knowing he wasn’t Gerald provided.

Needed the way he said her name, with a soft whisper in her ear that made her heels dig into his back. Needed and wanted that. 

Linda tried not to think of Gerald. If he happened to cross her thoughts, it was only ever out of spite. The thought of him made her dig her fingertips harder into Gary’s skin, chewing on her bottom lip as her forehead fell against his shoulder.

Linda knew Gerald loved her. She just didn’t really care. Linda loved _this_. The way Gary was careful with her, as if she were the most delicate, most precious thing in the world. She loved the way Gary Goldstein adored her. Yes, that was it. His soft eagerness, the tenderness in his every move that veiled an infatuated desire. A raw form of worship that sent electricity buzzing through Linda’s very being.

This was the feeling she lived for, the quickly fading high that she could stretch out forever if she just closed her eyes and let herself get lost in her senses. This was what it was to be adored. This small, impossible moment, as their breaths mingled into light moans and his fingers raked through her hair and they rocked together in the dim lamp light of his office overlooking the quiet town of Hatchetfield.

This was a strange, intoxicating moment, because as Linda’s heavy lidded stare flickered over Gary’s shoulder and her clouded gaze took in the tiny blurred streetlights and the flashing headlights of the cars, Linda believed this town was hers. Just as Gary was hers. Just as Gerald was hers. Just as stupid Erica Wilson’s husband and cute Nora from the coffee shop and Gerald’s secretary were hers. 

In this moment, Linda Monroe held all the importance of the world, she wasn’t just the ruler of a town, she was a god. In this moment, Linda Monroe was adored in ways nobody except her could understand.

In this moment, Linda Monroe was everything.

Linda said goodbye to Gary Goldstein after, her body still buzzing with familiar electricity. He kissed her once more on the doorway of his office, his icy blue eyes staring into hers with hope and reverence and a boyish kind of surprise that made Linda feel like she held the key to his heart between her teeth. She could live forever in the feeling. 

Gary Goldstein whispered goodbye to her, and for a moment looked like he was considering following with some sort of statement like “I’ll text you” or “give me a call.” But Gary Goldstein was smarter than that. He tucked a strand of blonde hair behind Linda’s ear and said, “when you need me.” A smart man. Linda almost said this, but she didn’t. 

She smiled and turned around and started walking down the hall of the office building, knowing that Gary’s gaze followed her, waiting to see if she would look back.

Gary was smart, but there was a crucial difference between him and Linda Monroe, the reason why she was who she was, why she held the position and the power that she held.

Linda Monroe would never look back.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah ik ik


End file.
